Lixian Jin, Changsheng Jiang, Jie Zhang, Yuan Yuan, Xiaohua and Qun Xie

This paper investigates attitudes, perceptions and motivations of Chinese primary school pupils and their parents towards the learning of English through both quantitative and qualitative methods, particularly using elicited metaphor analysis. The findings offer insights into these English learners and their parents, with wider implications for English teaching practice for young learners.